Meet Our First Round of 2020–21 Scholarship Winners!
This hard-working quartet attributes much of their success to the women who came before them.
We are proud to announce the recipients of our Fall 2020 scholarships, and boy, are they standouts! We are so honored to have received their applications and to be helping them on their educational journeys. Their essays spoke of unprecedented challenges and unparalleled determination. We are positive these students will not only let nothing stop them from reaching their goals, but that they will pay it forward. Here’s a quick look at each winner:
Anaya LeBlanc
Anaya LeBlanc started college this fall at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is studying psychology and graduates in 2024. Like nearly all our winners, Anaya cited her mother as her inspiration: Despite being a teen mother with a myriad of financial challenges, her mother succeeded in her goal of advancing her education and has never stopped helping Anaya with her mission of becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. “What a gift I have been given to see hard work pay off first-hand,” says Anaya.
Bobby Steptoe
Bobby Steptoe attends the University of Houston. He moved to the city after Hurricane Katrina. He is on track to receive his bachelor’s in social work in May 2021. Bobby is the great-nephew of 1969 Adult Education Center graduate Shirley Rondeno. “I will not let the sacrifices and hard work my mother invested in our family perish,” says Bobby. In 2013, his mother, Nakela Steptoe, also a single parent, became the first college graduate in the family, returning to school after two decades. Of his final stretch, says Bobby, “The road has not been easy, but we have persevered, and victory is not far away.”
Pamela Manuel
Louisiana resident Pamela Manuel is completing a doctorate in business administration from Walden University in Minneapolis. Her inspiration is her late grandmother who “managed, even with limited education, to rear 13 children, numerous grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who cover the gamut of the professional world.” Her grandmother’s painful experience of being convinced to sell property below market value and her commitment to education and community were lessons that now comprise the foundation of Pamela’s doctoral study. It seeks in part “to address the economic disparities minority communities face with respect to community development.”
Jazmine Foxworth
Jazmine Foxworth is studying software engineering at educational nonprofit Operation Spark in New Orleans. She is on track to receive her certificate in January 2021. “Since I was a child, my mother has always been the force behind me, pushing me to fight for what I believe in and to never give up on my pursuit of success, knowledge, and education.” Their regular Thursday visits to the library when Jazmine was growing up were of profound impact, not only because the library developed Jazmine’s connection to reading but because her mother would “also teach me about the books she enjoyed reading growing up and that defined her experience as a Black woman.” Jazmine is one of the top students in her program, according to her instructor.
We trust you are as impressed and inspired by our scholarship winners as we are. If you have donated to The 431 Exchange for this scholarship cycle, we want to extend a profound thank you. If you haven’t had the opportunity to donate yet, we’re awarding three more scholarships in January 2021. Would you help us help deserving students by donating now? One hundred percent of your donation goes to scholarships; none to administration. And if you know of a deserving student, please encourage them to apply for our next round. The deadline is December 31. All the details are on our Scholarship Application.